Plants solitary or in clusters, with bulbils on caudices, or short-rhizomatous. Leaves basal; petiole flattened, 0.5-3 cm; blade ± ovate, 2-5 cm, ± fleshy, base attenuate, margins entire or crenulate, eciliate, surfaces hairy. Inflorescences 10-25-flowered, congested, glomerate thyrses, 4-15 cm, pink- to purple-tipped stipitate-glandular (hairs uniseriate). Flowers: sepals erect to ascending, ovate; petals absent, sometimes 1-5, white to greenish white, not spotted, linear to oblong, clawed, 1-2 mm, much shorter than sepals; filaments linear, flattened; pistils connate to 1/2 their lengths; ovary 1/2+ inferior. Capsules reddish or purplish, folliclelike. 2n = 38.

Flowering early spring-summer. Vernally moist meadows, wet depressions on mountain slopes; 600-2800 m; Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.